Looking to reveal the intricate details found on a butterfly's wing, photographer Chris Perani uses macro photography to capture the vibrant colours and textures found on these fascinating insects, which seem to resemble sequined fabrics.

To accomplish this, Perani uses a 10x microscope objective that is attached onto a 200-millimetre lens, resulting in an almost-nil depth of field. These beautiful images take a lot of work, says Perani:

Each image of a butterfly wing consists of 2,100 separate exposures merged into a single photo. [..] Using a focus rail, the lens must be moved no more than 3 microns per photo to achieve focus across the thickness of the subject which can be up to 8 millimeters. This yields 350 exposures, each with a sliver in focus, that must be composited together. This process yields one piece of 6-piece puzzle. The process is repeated 6 times for different sections of the wing with the final result being the composite of these pieces.